Question:
Your cruising along and smoke starts wafting out the vents. Obviously a fire. The question..... With all the motions required to 1.get the extinguisher out and activated, on a doo it's under the front hatch inside of a plastic storage bottle with a screw on cap. as soon as you open the hatch, first the fire is going to flare up explosively. second.. the waves are coming over the bow and down the hatch and causing a gasoline fire to flare up even more plus your going to sink if you don't get the hatch closed. Since the hatch is locked open you need to reach thru the inferno to release the latch and close the hatch.Now you got third degree burns over 25% of your skin surface. You could just force it down but likely the hood will just break off at the hinge and sink. Assuming you got thru this and are still alive and the ski is still worth saving, now you need to get the seat off to fight the fire. Again introducing fresh air and causing the fire to accelerate rapidly exposing the remaining 75% of your hide to the fire. Your trying your damndest not to fall off the ski which is rocking wildly cause you are drifting paralell to the waves. By this time the fire is so large that little ext. is not enuf to do the job anyway even if you are in any condition to try. Now the question. Would it be better just to shutdown the ski when you first see the smoke coming out the vents? Tell your passengers to hop off and swim a short distance. Stand on the gunnell to one side and pull on the handelbars until you flip the ski over. When the trapped air is depleted of oxygen the fire will smother and go out. If its a gas fire some gas will probably leak out underwater but it won't be burning since it's isolated from the fire. If it's a smouldering or electrical fire you could remove the drain plug and allow some more air out letting more water in. If most of the foam is intact the ski shouldn't sink to the bottom even if you let all the air out. If my theory is correct this method should 1.Decrease your risk of severe burns. 2. increase your odds of recovering a much more repairable ski. Tell me what you think good or bad. Constructive criticism is encouraged, mindless flaming is not. Could it be worth testing on an old junker ski?

Answer: USCG says to forget the extinguisher, and get as far away from the ski as you can before it explodes. The hull is all flammable material, plastic burns quickly...so doesn't fiberglas resin. Any heat inside like a fire will quickly melt the top above the fuel of the cheap, plastic gas tank. If the fire is going fairly well, the gas in the tank will start boiling (it has a very low boiling/vaporizing point) and the pressure will split the cheap, plastic tank quickly with the tank melting from the heat. To help make the fire even hotter and more intense, we've elected to fill your hull with cheap, but very flammable, styrofoam floatation. The styrofoam will insulate the inside of the hull so it gets hotter, quicker...melts the gas tank faster...and puts it out of its misery. Fireproof components cost more money and hurt company profit margins. Do you get the picture of how utterly futile the stupid fire extinguisher or "saving" the boat is going to be? FORGET IT! Save yourself and your passenger! I hope this doesn't happen if you're stupid enough to go skiing in the cold. Both of you will suffer hypothermia in your pretty wetsuit in about 10 minutes, go to sleep PERMANENTLY and they'll find your carcasses floating around the burned out shell pieces that don't sink.